


Always Tomorrow

by Elexica



Series: Elexica does AU-gust 2020 [19]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AU-gust 2020, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, BUT only about the scars, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Pre-Slash, Scars, but honestly mostly comfort, but there is SO much yearning, lot of talking about scars, oops all comfort, ygocollablove
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elexica/pseuds/Elexica
Summary: Joey is a tattoo artist who specializes in Duel Monsters and scar coverage.Kaiba is a walk-in client.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Elexica does AU-gust 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860052
Comments: 7
Kudos: 71
Collections: AUgust 2020





	Always Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alecto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alecto/gifts).



> For AU-gust 2020 day 29 - Tattoo Parlor AU
> 
> For Alecto-- that brilliant goddess, for whom I did a little programming research. 
> 
> See tags for TW-- but essentially, there is discussion of scars related to childhood abuse. The source of the scars is never discussed, but it does cause Kaiba to react emotionally. If this is in any way harmful for you to read, please do no read this fic.

. . .

“Tell me something. You ever felt this way? The burdens of this life, they've really got a way of dragging you real far down to the ground.”

  * “Master of My Own Mind” by Best Coast



. . .

“We don’t take walk-ins,” Joey said. His shirt was rolled up to the elbow, revealing intricate tattoo sleeves. A Red-Eyes Black Dragon screamed around his forearm, moving back and forth as he handled the cash register system. Kaiba’s eyes lingered on the smooth lines of the wings paired with the sharp forms of the scales. And that wasn’t the only eye-catching ink that Joey was sporting—Kaiba was entranced by a series of watercolor scapegoats and kanji trailed down his neck and disappeared into the plain black shirt that read “Eat, Sleep, Duel Monsters.” 

Kaiba’s eyes widened. “But this is a tattoo parlor. And I saw your picture on the website, you’re Joey Wheeler. I like your work. Is there anything that would prevent you from completing a tattoo at this time?”

“Company policy,” Joey shrugged, revealing the tip of Flame Swordsman’s flaming sword, poking out from under his collar. “We can’t just drop everything for everyone who wanders in. There’s a system.” It must be a very large piece, Kaiba reasoned, given the size of the flame. He wanted desperately to see more of it.

“Name the price. I can pay upfront.”

Joey shrugged again. “I’ve got a schedule, man.”

Kaiba removed his credit card, placing the heavy material on the glass countertop. The glossy black card opened many doors for him. An assortment of rings for various piercings were posed in black velvet in the case beneath.

“You are clearly not busy.” 

Joey looked offended and went back to logging inventory.

Kaiba was not a man who was skillful in pleading—but he was more than capable at negotiation. The card clicked threateningly on the counter as Kaiba impatiently tapped it. 

“Fine. Are you available for a consultation?”

Joey smiled warmly, recognizing his own victory. “Now we’re talkin’, c’mon back.”

Kaiba followed obediently, gawking over the large sigil of the millennium eye that all but _glowed_ at the nape of his neck. The longer blond strands of his hair brushed against the icon’s upper eyelid. 

The hallway turned into an actual, honest-to-god office, which was the last thing Kaiba expected. Joey pulled out a sketchbook as he leaned against his black desk. Joey waved one hand for Kaiba to sit, a swirling monochrome haze behind the image of the cartoon time wizard with his little scepter.

“So, what are you thinking? You’re tall as hell, so there’s plenty of canvas!” Joey laughed, all sunshine and shiny white teeth. 

Kaiba’s cheeks burned as he drummed up the will to answer the question. “In my research, you have something of a specialty in scar cover-ups.” Kaiba was not a man who would cower in his own shame. But the thought of baring himself completely, his secrets and those eternal marks of his loss, for this stranger… it stung at his dignity. He needed to do something today, or he would lose the will.

Joey’s smile dimmed compassionately. This was not going to be a routine intake appointment. He prided himself on careful and clever scar coverage, but those appointments usually took on a different tenor. Few people have scars from positive experiences, and the raw intensity of Joey’s client gave the clear impression that it would hardly be a routine appointment.

“I do,” Joey swallowed, “So, what are we working with?”

It was such a simple question. Kaiba adjusted the cufflinks on his wrists nervously. He had promised himself he wouldn’t be ashamed. There was nothing that he had done wrong.

He wished Mokuba had come with him. It was his idea in the first place.

Joey was suddenly very close, just inches away. “Hey, it’s alright. Take a breath.”

Kaiba did not want to obey his command, but he couldn’t resist a sharp intake of breath. He released it slowly, as if to prove a point. He wasn’t freaking out. 

“For a lotta people, tattoos that cover scars transform a person’s relationship to their body, and to what happened to ‘em. It can be part of the healing process,” Joey said, slowly. The sheer volume of his empathy weighed down his words and made them linger in Kaiba’s mind.

_Transform. Happened. Healing._

Kaiba continued to take long, intentional breaths. The scars burned at the back of his neck and across his back.

Joey reached out a hand towards Kaiba’s face before thinking better of making contact. The hand froze there, suspended close to his cheekbone. It was then that Kaiba realized his eyes were leaking tears. Joey had moved to wipe them away.

This whole event was too humiliating, Kaiba thought. And he couldn’t do it. 

“This was a bad idea,” Kaiba said, sucking in enough air to straighten his back. He bore a hole in the wall with his eyes, trying to absorb any collateral moisture. 

“Hey, for a lotta people, it’s a part of reclaiming your body, after something hard,” Joey curled his fingers around the hem of his shirt and revealed a gnarly scar just above his right hip. It was composed of a lot of smaller cuts, webbed together in a semi-circle. The raised skin had been left exposed, with dashes of black woven in to create the swirl at the center of the “Polymerization” card. The only colors were those of the orange dragons swimming around the vortex in their own lazy waves. “It was for me. My friend Yugi did this one.”

Joey reached out, and slowly took Kaiba’s hand. 

“It doesn’t have to cover the whole thing, if you don’t want it too. See!”

He drew Kaiba’s hand in, softly bringing Kaiba’s fingertips to his skin. Kaiba’s arm was entirely tense, and he could have pulled back at any time. But he couldn’t resist—the curiosity bubbled within him. The pads of his fingers skimmed over the scar tissue in its randomness, and the disciplined smooth black stripes emanating from the twisted center. Kaiba was almost shocked at how warm Joey’s skin was. He wanted desperately to touch more, but when Joey dropped his hand, Kaiba withdrew it. 

“Alright, I showed you mine. You feelin’ up to showing me yours?” Joey’s grin was so painfully warm.

Kaiba couldn’t help but nod. He began to unbutton his shirt. Button by button, Kaiba kept his breathing steady by force of will. The rise and fall of his chest felt especially vulnerable with his buttons undone. He moved to his cufflinks.

“Ah, shirt’s fine, but ya gotta warn me if the pants are comin’ off too!” Joey said with a gentle laugh. Joey’s eyes were undeniably glued to Kaiba’s abs, which made Kaiba’s breathing even more fragile.

Kaiba paused, fingers fumbling with the cufflink on his right hand. “It… just my shirt.” Kaiba spent his life speaking in eloquent sentences that drove investors to throw money at any idea that so must as sparked in his mind. He gave talks at industry conventions that brought the consumer electronics world to its knees. And he couldn’t force out a full sentence in front of this man.

“It’s okay,” Joey reassured. It didn’t feel practiced or put on. It almost felt like talking to a therapist.

Kaiba tugged off his shirt in one smooth move. 

Finally, it was Joey’s turn to have the wind knocked out of him. 

Kaiba braced for the inevitable questions. Those long, deep, even lines across his back scorched under the other man’s stare. And the little lines at the nape of his neck seared. The best lie that Kaiba had brainstormed on his way over was that it was a very bizarre car accident. Kaiba stressed internally that perhaps Joey thought Kaiba had done this on purpose, though the mechanics would have been infeasible.

But, like a professional, Joey didn’t ask any questions. He didn’t gasp. He didn’t even gawk for a significant amount of time.

“Alright!” Joey said, perhaps a touch too upbeat. “So, what’re we talkin’?”

Kaiba inhaled very slowly and began to replace his light blue Oxford shirt. “You, clearly, appreciate Duel Monsters.”

“Ha! Appreciate is a diplomatic way ta put it! I’m one a’ the greatest duelists that Domino has eva seen!” Joey’s smile was back to beaming at full wattage, like he hadn’t just witnessed Kaiba’s secret torture.

Kaiba was determined not to highlight his position in Kaiba Corp. The last thing he needed was this man to know everything—or make any educated guesses. He was already trying to slough off the sensation of being pitied. Still, he’d have to put this amateur in his place. “I have been called the Prince of Cards, and was National Champion, but now is hardly the time—”

Joey put down the Duel Disk he had grabbed from a drawer in his desk. “Yeah, not the time.”

Kaiba failed to suppress a smirk. It was jarring how quickly this man could bring him back to himself. “Anyway, I thought I could cover the… damage on the back with the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.”

Joey nodded. “That sounds super sick!! But that is going to take a lot of planning. And you want—”

“Nothing to show through. I was sort of imagining it in the style of a Yakuza boss. Just very powerful.”

Joey looked up, imagining it in his mind’s eye. “Alright, I can take down the information and draw up some sketches. That would be a very expensive piece, and pretty time consuming for both of us.”

“Money is no object,” Kaiba stated, ice cold and prideful.

“Is there anything else you’re thinking of?” Joey asked.

Kaiba’s hand flew to the back of his neck. “A very small piece of code. I’ll write it down.” 

The pad was heavier than Kaiba had anticipated, and Kaiba almost trembled as he wrote out the phrase: “pid_t pid = fork();”.

“I have never done a tattoo like that!” Joey remarked. “This won’t fully cover the scar.”

Kaiba nodded sternly. “That’s fine. It actually should go between the lines. It’s a very specific piece of code: it’s the basic invocation of a ‘fork,’ which is how a program splits itself and spawns new programs. It’s critical to the function of any Linux system, anywhere. One process starts when you boot up, and then it’s all forks from there.”

“Uh, ok. And what does that have to do with _you_ , exactly?” Joey raised an eyebrow, affecting a serious “thinking” face.

“I don’t believe in fate. I make my choices and I live with them. For me, it means that I am always at a new decision point, and I build my life on these decision points. No one else builds it for me,” Kaiba looked directly into Joey’s attentive caramel eyes. “And my past does not define me. I am one fork away from a new program. The next challenge. A new life.” 

The explanation spread a smile across Joey’s face. “That would take me maybe, thirty minutes? I could do it now, if you’d like. In that spot, it would hurt like a bitch, but something tells me—”

“Pain is no object.”

“Yeah, right, so, if you’re still determined to walk out of here with a tatt, we can do that,” Joey said.

Kaiba smiled, just a tiny bit. “I’d like that.”

FIN

. . .

“For me there's always tomorrow, even when I'm drowning in my sorrows. I gotta focus, gotta rewind, gotta stay the master of my own mind.”

  * Best Coast “Master of My Own Mind”



**Author's Note:**

> Really the whole “Always Tomorrow” album is worth a listen. Especially if you’re dealing with some real stuff, and who among us is not?
> 
> Now we’ve got pierced Kaiba in “Dark Web” and tatt’d Jou in “Always Tomorrow.”
> 
> Also, in manga canon, one of Kaiba’s traitorous body guards referred to him as “The Prince of Cards” and I will never be over that. 
> 
> Credit to my irl boy Jack for the coding tattoo idea that I don’t *think* has been done before! Without him, this would be “hello world” lol!
> 
> Like the boys with tattoos? You'd love Alecto's work, "A Fool's Puzzle" (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23464288).


End file.
